This invention relates to digital photo system that digitally exposes light-sensitive materials on the basis of digitized image data and which outputs a prints (photographs) having the image data reproduced therein.
Heretofore, the image recorded on photographic films (hereinafter referred to simply as xe2x80x9cfilm or filmsxe2x80x9d) has been commonly printed on light-sensitive materials by means of direct exposure, in which the image on the film is projected onto the light-sensitive material to achieve its areal exposure. A new technology has recently been introduced and this is a method called xe2x80x9cdigital exposurexe2x80x9d. Briefly, the image information recorded on a film is read photoelectrically, converted to digital data and subjected to various image processing steps and, thereafter, the light-sensitive material is exposed on the basis of the digital image data. A system operating on this method has been commercialized as a digital photo system.
The digital photo system is basically composed of an input machine and an output machine. The input machine has a scanner that reads the image data recorded on an original such as a transmission original or a reflection original, a control apparatus that not only controls and manages the system in its entirety but also performs various image processing steps on the input image data, and so forth. The output machine has a printer that digitally exposes a light-sensitive material in accordance with the processed image data, a processor for developing the exposed light-sensitive material, and so forth. Typically, the input machine is separable from the output machine.
The input machine is first discussed. In the scanner, if it is set to read the image data recorded on a film, the reading light issuing from a light source is allowed to be incident on the film, from which projected light bearing the image recorded on the film is produced and focused by an imaging lens to form a sharp image on an image sensor such as a CCD sensor, the image being then captured by photoelectric conversion and optionally subjected to various image processing steps. The resulting input image data that corresponds to the image recorded on the film is thereafter supplied to the control apparatus.
In the control apparatus, the system as a whole is controlled in accordance with an operator""s command and, after the input image data supplied from the scanner is digitized or after preliminarily digitized image data is supplied to the control apparatus, the conditions for various image processing steps are set in accordance with the digitized or supplied data and various image processing steps are performed on the image data while at the same time the exposing conditions are determined, whereupon output image data is transferred to the printer in the output machine.
The output machine is next described. In the printer, if it is of a type that relies upon exposure by scanning with light beams, the latter are modulated in accordance with the image data transferred from the control apparatus and deflected in a main scanning direction as the light-sensitive material is transported in an auxiliary scanning direction which is generally perpendicular to the main scanning direction, whereby a latent image is recorded as the result of two-dimensional scan exposure. Thereafter, the latent image is subjected to development and any other processing steps that are determined by the light-sensitive material, thus yielding a finished print that reproduces the image recorded on the film.
The digital photo system performs color/density correction and determines the exposing conditions by image processing, so it takes a shorter time to expose one image. In addition, the exposure time assumes a constant value that is determined by the image size, so exposure can be accomplished at a faster speed than in the case of the conventional direct exposure. As a further advantage, the digital photo system has many capabilities in image processing such as editing by, for example, assembling a plurality of images or splitting a single image into plural images, as well as color/density adjustment; as a result, finished prints can be outputted after various editing and image processing operations have been performed in accordance with specific uses.
In addition, the image information in the finished print can be stored in a magneto-optical disk and other recording media and, hence, operations such as extra printing can be done rapidly and easily without the need of reading the film again or determining the exposing conditions again. As a further advantage, the digital photo system is capable of outputting prints in which the image information recorded in films and so forth is reproduced almost completely in such aspects as resolution and color/density reproduction, although this has been difficult to attain by prints produced by the conventional direct exposure method.
Pictures taken in tourist spots such as Disneyland include those of picturesque sites such as buildings (e.g. Cinderella Castle) and other scenes in the playground, those of mascots (characters) such as Mickey Mouse and commemorative pictures taken with mascots. However, due, for example, to bad weather, it sometimes occurs that buildings or scenes fail to come out good in pictures, or pictures of mascots cannot be taken, or commemorative pictures cannot be taken with mascots.
Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application (kokai) Nos. 120094/1997 and 138483/1997 teach a film or a film-with-lens unit in which primary information such as a letter, symbol, geometric figure, pattern or an image that provide a yet to be shot image which can form a composite picture together with an actually shot image is pre-exposed in some of the shooting frames. It is also provided with identifier information that identifies the frames in which the primary information has been exposed. The film and the film-with-lens unit are described as being capable of producing various kinds of composite pictures in an inexpensive and simple way.
A problem with such film and film-with-lens unit is that the fixed primary information that is directly exposed in some of the frames of a film increases the length of the film by the number of the frames in which the primary information of interest is exposed and the film cost is accordingly increased. On the other hand, if the number of frames in a film is adjusted to be the same as in the conventional film, the number of frames that are available for shooting is reduced by the number of the frames in which the primary information is exposed.
Films and film-with-lens units that are actually sold on the market have an added problem in that they have only limited types of images that can be subjected to primary exposure, thus narrowing the scope of choice of a suitable primary exposed image. What is more, if a composite picture is to be prepared, the user, for example, must perform positional adjustment by looking at a print of the primary exposed image and because of this difficulty in preparing composite pictures in a convenient manner, there has been a high likelihood for the failure to produce satisfactory prints.
The present invention has been accomplished under these circumstances and has as an object providing a digital photo system that is capable of offering high-quality photos of picturesque sites, mascots and other objects of interest as prints free of charge irrespective of weather, situation and other external conditions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a digital photo system by which a picturesque site, a mascot, letter information and so forth can be combined with an actually shot image in an easy and yet positive way to produce composite pictures without failure.
The stated objects of the present invention can be attained by a digital photo system that digitally exposes a light-sensitive material on the basis of digitized first image data and which outputs a print reproducing said first image data, said system comprising an information input section that enters or acquires image designating information, an image database having a preliminary storage of more than one kind of image data that corresponds to said image designating information, a data selecting section with which at least one kind of second image data that corresponds to said image designating information is selectively outputted from said image database, and a data output section with which said first and second image data are outputted to either an image data storing recording medium or a printer for digitally exposing said light-sensitive material or both.
The digital photo system of the invention has preferably an image processing section that performs various image processing steps on said first and/or second image data and which thereafter supplies the processed first and second image data to said data output section.
Said second image data is preferably outputted as image data for an additional print independent of the print corresponding to said first image data.
Said image processing section preferably performs image compositing on said first and second image data.
In yet another preferred embodiment, said information input section enters or acquires said image designating information as recorded either optically or magnetically either in a specified area of a photographic film or on the surface of a film package or both or as recorded electrically on an IC installed on a film cassette.